Taxpayer-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland was hit with a £5.6 million fine today by the City regulator, at the same time as one of the front-runners to replace its outgoing chief executive Stephen Hester ruled himself out of the running.

The Lloyds Bank share price has again hit new highs for the year as the belief builds that the bank has indeed turned the corner and the Government is realistic in wanting to sell part of its shareholding in the next weeks and months.

The Government today finally fired the starting gun on the stock-market flotation of Royal Mail, claiming Britain’s biggest privatisation since the railways was vital as “the public will always want to invest in schools and hospitals ahead of” the postal operator.

The £350 million transformation of London’s iconic Centre Point tower into luxury flats took a huge step closer today after revised plans by property veteran Mike Hussey’s Almacantar were recommended for approval by Camden council’s planning officers.

Glencore Xstrata’s billionaire chief executive Ivan Glasenberg has announced sweeping board changes at the wheat trading-to-coal mining empire, as he looks to slash hundreds of millions of pounds of costs.

Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of HSBC, is not yet prepared to declare that the financial crisis, which started in 2008 shortly after the bank reported growing bad debts among some of its riskier US mortgage customers, is over.